South African’s Caster Semenya loses IAAF testosterone legal case

Caster Semenya has lost a landmark case against athletics’ governing body meaning it will be allowed to restrict testosterone levels in female runners.

The surprise decision, which was announced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after three judges had spent more than two months deliberating over the complex and highly contentious case, came even though Cas agreed that the IAAF’s policy was discriminatory to athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) such as Semenya.

In a statement, Cas said Semenya’s team had been unable to prove the IAAF’s policy was “invalid”. Instead, it ruled that its policy was in fact “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to ensure fair competition for females.

It added: “The panel found that the DSD Regulations are discriminatory but that, on the basis of the evidence submitted by the parties, such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the IAAF’s aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics in the Restricted Events.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) rejected the South African’s challenge against the IAAF’s new rules.

But Cas said it had “serious concerns as to the future practical application” of the new rules.

Semenya, 28, had said the regulations were “unfair” and that she wanted to “run naturally, the way I was born”.

Semenya had taken the IAAF to court over its plans requiring female athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) who are often born with male testes to take hormone suppressants, arguing that the policy was discriminatory, unfair, and potentially pose a health risk.

However during the five-day hearing last month, the IAAF maintained that its policy was solely about creating a level playing field for all woman, so that success was based on talent and hard work.

Central to its case was that over 99% of females have around 0.12-1.79 nmol/L of testosterone in their bodies while DSDs like Semenya is in the male range of 7.7-29.4 nmol/L.

The IAAF’s argument was that because testosterone confers significant advantages in size, strength and power from puberty onwards, it was fair to require DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone to below five nmol/L for at least six months if they wanted to compete internationally at distances ranging from 400m to a mile.

Now she and other athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) must either take the medication in order to compete in events from 400m to the mile or change events

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